Hamilton takes title with extra point

Pantano, who won the race from Nelson Piquet Jr in second and Hamilton in third, set the race's fastest time on the final lap - but the stewards of the meeting disqualified the Italian's time due to yellow flags that where shown on that lap.

This meant the fastest lap of the race was officially set by Hamilton, who in turn gained an additional championship point, thus increasing his lead from Piquet to seven - enough to secure the Briton's title.

With a maximum of seven points available from tomorrow's sprint race, the best Piquet could have hoped for is to tie Hamilton in the points - requiring Piquet to win, set the fastest lap, and see Hamilton outside the points.

However, in case of a tie, Hamilton would still be crowned champion - both he and Piquet would be tied on wins, but the Briton has more second-place finishes than the Brazilian.

Hamilton is the second GP2 champion, taking the crown over from Nico Rosberg, who won the inaugural championship last year in the same seat as his successor, with the ART team.

Hamilton is expected to make the move to Formula One next season, with McLaren yet to decide if they want to place their young protege in a race seat alongside Fernando Alonso.

Piquet, who will finish his second season in GP2, has already been confirmed as Renault's official F1 test driver next season.